Improvement in the manufacture of flexible tubing



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WM. E. s. TAYLOR, oF NEvvvYoEK, N. Y.

Speciiication forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,740, dated Julie 19, 1866.

To alt 'whom 'it may concern.-

Bc it known that I, WILLIAM B. S. TAYLOR, ot' the city and county of New York, and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in the Man utacture ofFleX ible Tubing for Illuminating-Gas and Similar Purposes and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and correct description thereoi", reference. being had to the annexed drawings, and to the letters ot' reference thereon.

The nature ot' my said invention eonsistsin making exible gas-tight tubing by combining in atlexible tube a layer or layers ot' animal i'nembrane coated or covered with glue or other gelatinous cement, substantially as hereinafter described.

In the manufacture of my improved tubing' I use animal membrane, which composes the guts, stomach, bladder, and other animal intestines, and lia-ving cleaned and cut them i into strips, soften the. strips with glyceriue or molasses, so as to make them perfectly pliable. They are then ready to be combined with suitable iexible material for liexible tubing.

The object of the ilse of' animal membrane and glue is to resist the penetrative action et' the gas and its iiuids. The membrane is disposed in the tube in either a double or single helical layer, overlapping' at thejoints. I prefer to use a double layer. It may be placed in this form in a Ilexible tube, so as to form the in nerlayer orlining thereof, or it may constitute the covering of a flexible tube, also the inlayer between two layers ot' other iiexible material, the whole constituting a iexible tube.

In applying' the membrane to the mannfac ture ot' the tubing, besides winding' the strips in a helical form, so as to overlap at the edges or joints, I also shir or plait it to give it capacity for bending freely with the tube; but the Inode of making the tubing will be better understood by referriu g to the drawings, which illustrate my invention.

Figures l and 2 are Views of a tube in which the membrane a is Wound and shirred on a tube of india-rubber, b, the rubber" tube being stretched about one-eighth of its length while the membrane is being' wound on it. The shirring is shown exaggerated in Fig. 2. I It is a sort of wrinkling of the skin or membrane that is produced by this operation. The membraneis then coated with a solution of glue or other suitable iiexible gelatinous cement, and a covering ot' sheet-rubber or other suitable ilexible material, c, applied. It' the llexible material ot' the covering be not elastic it may be also shirred onto the tube.

Ipre'ertheiorm of tubing shown in Figs. l and 2, but itmay be made, as shown in Figs. 3' and 4, by winding the layers of membrane on a mandrel and removing the mandrel after the membrane is cemented io the outer cover ing, I). The mandrel may be elastic-as, for instance, a tube or round strip ot' rubber. In that case the shirring of' the membra-neis produced by stretching the elastic mandrel used as a former, and it is readily removed, when the tube is completed, by further stretehingit so as to decrease its diameter.

The membrane may be applied to Hexible material that is not elastic by plaiting or gathel'ing it as it is wound on; but I prefer to use elastic material as a foundation for the tubing and also to protect lhe. membrane from abrasion. Y

It' desired, the tubing may have an extra covering, as shown at d, Figs. 3 and 4.

I claim as my invention and improvement in flexible tubing for illuminating-gas- The combination, in alexible gas-tube, of a layer or layers otl animal membrane coated with glue or other suitable gelatinous cement, substantially as described, and for the purpose of resisting the penetrative action of the gas and its tluids.

B. S. TAYLOR.

Witnesses F. (l. TEEADWELL, Jr.,

J oHN A. DUNCAN. 

